China Conducts Patrols Near Scarborough Shoal Following U.S.-Philippine Military Drills

China’s military and coast guard conducted patrols near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Sunday. The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command said its naval and air units carried out combat readiness patrols in the territorial sea and airspace of the atoll and its surrounding areas.

The Chinese coast guard separately confirmed law enforcement patrols near the shoal and stated it had dealt with ships engaged in illegal rights-violation activities in accordance with laws and regulations this month.

U.S. forces that ended on Saturday. The Philippine military said the drills, the third such exercise this year, included visit-board-search-and-seizure operations and were intended to strengthen interoperability and maritime security.

The exercise underscored the allies’ commitment to stronger defence ties, improved maritime domain awareness and support for a rules-based order at sea. Philippine defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that Manila remained under severe threat from China, both territorially and politically.

“We have no choice but really to be resilient and to stand up against Chinese aggression,” he said.

The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The latest patrols coincided with the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence forum, where defence ministers and military chiefs from across the Asia-Pacific region gathered. -China tensions following a summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping earlier this month.

Manila and Beijing have been embroiled in repeated maritime standoffs in the South China Sea in recent years that have occasionally led to collisions between vessels and injuries to personnel. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea through a nine-dash line on its maps, which encroaches upon the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in 2016 that China’s claims lacked support under international law, a decision Beijing rejected.

Taiwan makes broadly similar claims to China’s in the South China Sea.